APDS9960 Sensor Driver

Interfacing an AVAGO APDS9960 digital sensor module (capable of gesture detection, proximity detection, ambient light sensing and RGB colour sensing) in Python 2 or 3 using I2C on the Raspberry Pi and other linux-based single-board computers. The particular kit I bought can be acquired for a few pounds from AliExpress. Further technical details for the APDS9960 sensor can be found in the datasheet [PDF].

GPIO pin-outs

The APDS9960 is an I2C device, so connecting to the RPi is very straightforward:

P1 Header

For prototyping, the P1 header pins should be connected as follows:

Board Pin	Name	Remarks	RPi Pin	RPi Function
1	VIN	+3.3V Power	P01-1	3V3
2	GND	Ground	P01-6	GND
3	SCL	Clock	P01-5	BCM 3 (SCL)
4	SDA	Data	P01-3	BCM 2 (SDA)
5	INT	Interrupt	P01-16	BCM 23 (SDA)

Pre-requisites

Ensure that the I2C kernel driver is enabled:

$ dmesg | grep i2c
[    4.925554] bcm2708_i2c 20804000.i2c: BSC1 Controller at 0x20804000 (irq 79) (baudrate 100000)
[    4.929325] i2c /dev entries driver

or:

$ lsmod | grep i2c
i2c_dev                 5769  0
i2c_bcm2708             4943  0
regmap_i2c              1661  3 snd_soc_pcm512x,snd_soc_wm8804,snd_soc_core

If you have no kernel modules listed and nothing is showing using dmesg then this implies the kernel I2C driver is not loaded. Enable the I2C as follows:

1. Run sudo raspi-config
2. Use the down arrow to select 9 Advanced Options
3. Arrow down to A7 I2C
4. Select yes when it asks you to enable I2C
5. Also select yes when it asks about automatically loading the kernel module
6. Use the right arrow to select the <Finish> button
7. Select yes when it asks to reboot

After rebooting re-check that the dmesg | grep i2c command shows whether I2C driver is loaded before proceeding.

Optionally, to improve permformance, increase the I2C baudrate from the default of 100KHz to 400KHz by altering /boot/config.txt to include:

dtparam=i2c_arm=on,i2c_baudrate=400000

Then reboot.

Then add your user to the i2c group:

$ sudo adduser pi i2c

Install some packages:

$ sudo apt-get install i2c-tools python-pip

Next check that the device is communicating properly (if using a rev.1 board, use 0 for the bus not 1):

$ i2cdetect -y 1
       0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f
  00:          -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 39 -- -- -- -- -- --
  40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Installing the Python Package

For python2, from the bash prompt, enter:

$ sudo python setup.py install

This will install the Python files in /usr/local/lib/python2.7 making them ready for use in other programs.

Alternatively for python3, type:

$ sudo python3 setup.py install

Cheeseshop install

Alternatively, a version on PyPi is available, just do:

$ sudo pip install RPi.apds9960

Software Driver - Example Usage

Once installed, confirm the I2C address (see prerequisites, it will most likely be 0x39) and port.

Then in a python script or REPL:

# TODO
import smbus2
import apds9960

port = 1
address = 0x39
bus = smbus2.SMBus(port)

References

> TODO

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Richard Hull

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.